Followers

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Contrary to the conventional perspective which regards children as potential human beings who do not reach their full worth until maturity, Jewish tradition perceives children as worthy and deserving of our greatest resources of time and energy to create an environment that is both physically and spiritually nurturing. For it is the children who embody the purity of intent, sincerity, faith and enthusiasm for life.

In America, most parents, however well-intentioned, have been more concerned about their children's material, rather than spiritual, well-being. Having themselves faced economic hardships as immigrants or the children of immigrants, and having found that religious conviction and principles not infrequently proved "restrictive" in a materialistic society, they decided to do their utmost to shelter their children from the economic hardships which they had experienced. They were thus primarily interested in providing their children with careers and professions and other means of economic security, leaving it to their children to find their own way eventually, in regard to such things as religion and a world outlook.

However well-meaning the parents may have been, the result is the same. It fostered a way of life where principles have been sacrificed to expediency, and time-honored traditions have been relinquished for material gains, actual or imaginary. . . . The bankruptcy of ideas and ideologies have left many young people terribly disillusioned, morally and spiritually. A void has been created in their hearts and minds which they do not know how to fill.